Your Travel Guide to Brussels

We love seeing the beautiful images artists take while traveling. Today we are so excited to have Sarah Carpenter sharing a bit from her trip to Brussels with us!

Ever since my husband and I went to Brussels last summer, I have been daydreaming about it nonstop. When we stepped out of the train station and into Brussels Center that beautiful summer day, I fell in love. The city is diverse and artistic, young and old at the same time. It’s the perfect mix of everything I love about Europe- innovation and preservation.

My husband and I spent the first few days of our 2014 Europe trip roaming around the city, eating waffles and fries, listening to the music festival from our hotel room and taking pictures of any part of the city we could easily walk to. We loved everything about it so much that, after traveling for the next 10 days with my sister and her boyfriend, we took her back to Brussels and did it all over again. We especially made her eat some waffles. Actually, that was the first thing we did because the waffles are to die for.

I was so excited that we just happened to be in Brussels during the opening of the flower carpet. Ever since landscape architect, Etienne Stautemas, designed the first one back in 1971, the city has put it together every 2 years. This thing is huge and stunning and takes all day to put together. It is literally a giant carpet on the Grand-Place made of all colors of flowers, and the opening ceremony for it was magical. Fireworks came out of the center of the carpet, powerful music played. I think I might have shed a tear or two… or three. If you ever get a chance to see this, you definitely should.

If I could go back to that city every year for the music, the food, and the flowers, I would. If I could do the whole experience over again every single day, I definitely would.